I decided that for my, err, 21st birthday (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it), we need a bit of nice pub grub, lots of beers and karaoke. All of this can be found at Coopers Inn in the city.

For starter, I had the Greek Salad ($4.00). There’s not much to say about it except it’s a bit of green. It breaks the Greek salad rule more than I ever did by including spinach, rocket and had not a single piece of tomato or cucumber in sight. So basically more like green salad with feta and olives. But it was something that went down very nicely as a starter with a glass of Asahi.

Most of my friends went straight into main meal (I didn’t manage to take a picture of everyone’s meals, only a few people).

Josh (and three others) ordered the Crispy Skinned Atlantic Salmon ($16.90) which was salmon fillet pan fried with crispy skin on a bed of mashed potatoes and steamed bok choy and topped with avocado salsa. The fish was nicely cooked and went well with the salsa and the mash. It was very popular and everyone who ordered it really enjoyed it.

Samar ordered the gnocchi which was on the specials board. I can’t remember the exact description on the board but it seemed like a vegetarian dish but it turned out to be full of bacon and he ended up not eating because he’s vego. I had a bite of it. It was really yummy but I thought the description was a bit misleading.

Maria ordered the Chicken Parmiagana ($17.50) – it was HUGE and covered the plate it was on. I forgot to ask her how it was.

This was the Open Steak Sandwich ($17.50) – again no idea how it tasted, Cameron didn’t provide any comments.

Mat had the Roast Pumpkin Risotto ($14.90) – see his comments below about the dish!

This was my dinner. I called it the Big Kahuna. Twice-cooked Pork Belly ($16.90) – it came with mustardy mash, sautéed spinach and port wine jus. It was topped with baked apple (which was supposedly infused with cranberry but I don’t remember tasting it) – it was absolutely gorgeous. I thought it was the star of the night. The crackling was slightly on the tad too salty side but overall it was beautiful. It went down a treat with my Asahi pot.

The dinner was really nice (and cheap!) and the staff were very friendly and helpful. The karaoke! I’m not going to get into the dirty details but it was the most fun night out I’ve had in ages. Food, company and lots of singing! We did what I suspect a really awful rendition of Guns N’ Roses Paradise City and had a blast. Ah! Joie de vive!

I actually thoroughly enjoyed my risotto and a few people even had a little taste too. I wouldn’t say the pumpkin was particularly “roasted” (but then there’s not many pumpies that are dry enough to roast successfully.

The rice was also folded with some gorgeous goats cheese, fetta, I imagine by the flavour.

I’m so glad you grabbed a photo of my dish, I was pretty sure you’d missed it!

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